About us

Leander Club is recognised the world over for its extraordinary achievements, having won more Olympic and World championship gold medals than any other club, and home to rowing heroes and to the champions of tomorrow.

Leander’s members enjoy a very socially active club that encourages good fellowship, celebrates success and values its heritage, stretching back to its formation in 1818.

Event Diary

Corporate

Commercial partners engage with Leander Club and our International and Academy athletes for brand and relationship-building purposes.

As our story to 2018 and Leander’s Bicentenary unfolds, partners and other corporate clients are enjoying opportunities to entertain customers at Henley Royal Regatta and campaign events, or to row with our athletes.

Not a Member?

Over the past 50 years Leander has steadily changed its membership from being almost exclusively Oxbridge to now being a Club with membership drawn from clubs and universities from all over the UK and from all around the world. Women first became Full Members of the Club in 1997 and are now fully integrated within the Club

The basic requirements for Full Membership have traditionally been “Good fellowship and excellence in the rowing, sculling, coxing or coaching of high performance in fine racing boats.” However, the Committee can also admit Full Members based on their services to rowing.

One important message is that individuals do not have to be invited to join the Club - anyone with the right qualifications is welcome to apply - you just need a proposer and a seconder.

Henley Royal Regatta 2018

Leander is celebrating its bicentenary with a record entry at this year’s regatta, including 91 club and international athletes across 30 crews in 17 different events.

With 199 trophies to its credit since the club first won the Grand Challenge Cup in 1840 Leander is hoping that its athletes will record the 200th win to mark 200 years of history.

The milestone is virtually guaranteed as the two GB men’s fours – the only entries in the Stewards’ Challenge Cup – both contain Leander athletes.

At a club level Leander is looking to extend its winning sequence in the Prince of Wales Challenge Cup, a trophy which has remained in the club’s hands for all bar one of the last eight years.

On the sweep side Leander’s chances of success in the Visitors’ Challenge Cup will have been boosted by the four’s win at Marlow last weekend, when the Ladies’ Plate eight also won their event at the Eton Dorney event.

Lightweights Jonny Jackson and Ed Fisher also won the men’s pairs at Marlow, but will face much sterner opposition in the Silver Goblets and will first have to qualify this Friday, despite holding five world championship medals between them!

Also looking to match themselves against word class opposition will be Laura Meridew and Natasha Harris-White, winners of women’s pairs at Henley Women’s Regatta last weekend. The opposition in the new Hambleden Pairs Challenge Cup will include their clubmates, Rowan McKellar and Hattie Taylor, who won the bronze medal in women’s pairs at the World Cup regatta in Linz, Austria two weeks ago.

Linz also saw Leander success in the men’s double sculls where Jack Beaumont and Angus Groom took the gold medal ,to place themselves as odds-on favourites for the Double Sculls trophy at Henley.

In the Grand Challenge Cup the absence of the German national eight means that Australia will provide the main opposition to the GB men’s eight, with seven Leander athletes on board , who won the silver medal in Linz behind Germany.

In the Diamond Challenge Sculls former GB international lightweight Jamie Kirkwood is back in action despite his current role as assistant coach to the Oxford University women.

The Leander captain, Vicky Thornley, is also looking to avenge last year’s defeat at the hands of Germany’s Anne-Kathrin Thiele. Thornley beat Thiele last weekend but will now have to look out for the world champion, Jeanine Gmelin of Switzerland, making her first visit to Henley under the guidance of her coach, former Leander athlete Robin Dowell.

Leander will boat two crews in the Fawley Challenge Cup, the highly competitive event for junior boys quads, where Windsor Boys School, Maidenhead and Claires Court School will provide the main opposition.

Download your full colour photo guide to all Leander crews at Henley by clicking here
(NB. This PDF download may not work on portable devices)